Life and AD&D Insurance
Life insurance provides financial protection to your survivors in the event of your death. Life Insurance includes an Accidental Death and Dismemberment (AD&D) component. If your death is the result of an accident, your beneficiary will receive double your insurance amount. AD&D coverage also pays a certain amount if you lose a limb or certain vital functions as a result of an accident. Our Life and AD&D Insurance is provided through MetLife.
On this page:
- Eligibility
- Basic Life Insurance
- Life Insurance Base Salary
- Month After Death Benefit
- Imputed Income Tax
Eligibility
Carnegie Mellon provides basic life insurance coverage equal to your annual base salary, rounded up to the nearest thousand up to a maximum of $500,000, at no cost to you. For full-time, benefits-eligible employees, the basic life insurance includes an AD&D component. For part-time, benefits-eligible employees, AD&D can be purchased separately.
Basic Life Insurance
- Full-Time, Benefits-Eligible Employees: The university provides basic life insurance (1x your life base salary) at no cost to you. You can select basic life insurance only, enroll in optional life insurance, or opt out of life insurance when you are hired, during Open Enrollment or upon a life change.
- Part-Time, Benefits-Eligible Employees: The university provides basic life insurance equal to 1x your life base salary or $10,000 (whichever is higher) at no cost to you. You may opt-out of basic life insurance.
- No evidence of insurability is required for basic life insurance coverage.
- Basic life insurance coverage for those age 70+ is actuarially reduced.
- Imputed income taxes are required for the value of life insurance coverage in excess of $50,000.
Life Insurance Base Salary
Life insurance base salary is based on your annual salary, as of your date of hire and annually thereafter as of October for the following year. It is rounded up to the nearest $1,000.
For those with a 12-month annual work period, this is your salary. For those on a nine-month appointment, your life base salary is 11/9 times your academic year salary. It does not include salary for appointments of less than four months, overtime, faculty summer salary or special compensation. The benefit is not modified if your salary changes midyear.
Month After Death Benefit
If an eligible full-time faculty or staff member dies while actively employed by the university (employees on disability leave are not eligible), their life insurance beneficiaries will receive a cash payment equal to one month's pay: one-ninth of an academic year salary or one-twelfth of a twelve-month employee's salary. For eligible CPA members, this equals 168 hours of straight-time pay. To be eligible for this feature, you must have one year of continuous service at Carnegie Mellon. Coverage begins automatically when you are eligible; no enrollment is necessary.
Imputed Income Tax
The value of life insurance greater than $50,000 is taxable by the IRS. This is known as imputed income. The IRS calculates the value of group life insurance based on your age and the amount of coverage you have. Carnegie Mellon is required to withhold federal taxes based on the value of your life insurance coverage over $50,000. To reduce your tax liability, you can limit your life insurance to $50,000.
To calculate your monthly imputed income, subtract $50,000 from your life insurance amount and divide the remainder by 1,000. Multiply that amount by the premium level associated with your age as of Dec. 31. That is the imputed income that will be taxed monthly.
IRS Uniform Premium Rates
| Age as of Dec. 31 | Value for each $1,000 of coverage |
| Under 25 | $0.05 |
| 25–29 | $0.06 |
| 30–34 | $0.08 |
| 35–39 | $0.09 |
| 40–44 | $0.10 |
| 45–49 | $0.15 |
| 50–54 | $0.23 |
| 55–59 | $0.43 |
| 60–64 | $0.66 |
| 65–69 | $1.27 |
| 70 and over | $2.06 |